This invention relates to methods and apparatus for directing Internet users to health care information.
The Internet is a rich source of information on a wide variety of subjects such as medicine. The field of medicine, however, is vast and technically complex, and involves many terms of art which are not in the vocabulary of a typical Internet user. An Internet user who happens to locate health care information relevant to a particular ailment or concern might desire to locate a health care provider for treatment or advice. If the Internet user knows the type of health care provider or type of specialty best suited for providing such treatment or advise, he/she might be able to locate a qualified health care provider via a telephone book or insurance list of providers. In many cases, however, the user will not know the type of specialty best suited for his/her ailment or concern and will not know how to locate a specialist. Also, sub-specialists often exist within specialties. For example, general surgeons include vascular surgeons, colon and rectal surgeons, endocrine surgeons, breast surgeons, oncologic surgeons, etc. Sub-specialties are generally not listed in telephone books or insurance lists of providers and are typically not indexed or followed. Further, some sub-specialties are so specific that relatively few such sub-specialists exist in the entire U.S. or world and may be geographically remote from the Internet user. As such, such sub-specialist could not be located via a local telephone book or insurance list of providers. This problem causes all sub-specialists to be listed and indexed by their general classification, and therefore patients cannot find the correct specialist.
Presently, some web sites facilitate searching names of physicians by specialty for a particular geographic location. However, the areas of specialty are somewhat broad, and no provision is available for refining the search by sub-specialty. Also, no provision is made for locating a physician based on an ailment, condition, or desired procedure. This is especially troublesome since patients nearly always need a specialist because of the need for a very specific procedure or therapeutic intervention.
Among the features and advantages of the present invention may be noted the provision of an improved method for providing specific and relevant health care information to Internet users; the provision of such a method for directing Internet users to the names of health care providers for treating specific ailments or conditions regardless of whether the users know what type of specialist treats such ailments or conditions; the provision of such a method for directing Internet users to pertinent and specific content, such as the names of health care providers, relating to health care information with which the user is interfacing; the provision of an improved method which employs standardized codes for directing Internet users to such content; the provision of such a method which employs International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes or Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes; the provision of an improved Internet navigational system for providing health care information to a user; the provision of such a system employing standardized codes, such as ICD or CPT codes, to enable a user to retrieve content stored in a database.
Generally, a method of the present invention comprises storing content in a computer database, the content having a plurality of components. The method further comprises associating each of at least some of the content components with at least one of a plurality of codes (such as ICD or CPT codes) in a manner so that each of the plurality of codes employed has at least one of the content components associated therewith, and providing a retrieval system accessible by a user using the Internet. The retrieval system is adapted to retrieve the content components associated with any one of the codes upon receiving a signal sent by the user. The signal corresponds to said any one of the codes. The content components associated with said any one of codes are sent to the user upon receiving the signal.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method of supplying names of health care providers to Internet users. The method comprises storing the names of at least a plurality of health care providers in a computer database, and associating each of the names of the plurality of health care providers with at least one of a plurality codes (such as ICD or CPT codes). The names are associated with the codes in a manner so that each of the plurality of codes employed has at least one of the names associated therewith. The method further comprises providing a retrieval system accessible by a user using the Internet. The retrieval system is adapted to retrieve the stored names associated with any one of the codes upon receiving a signal from the user. The signal corresponds to said any one of the codes. The names associated with said any one of codes are sent to the user upon receiving the signal.
A further aspect of the present invention is an Internet navigational system. The navigational system comprises a computer database and a retrieval system. The computer database has content stored therein. The content has a plurality of components. Each of at least some of the content components are associated with at least one of a plurality of codes (such as ICD or CPT codes) in a manner such that each of the plurality of codes employed has at least one of the content components associated therewith. The retrieval system is accessible by a user using the Internet. The retrieval system is adapted to retrieve the content components associated with any one of the codes upon receiving a signal from the user. The signal corresponds to said any one of the codes.
Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.